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Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich Thursday announced his Office has joined the Global Financial Innovation Network (“GFIN”). Spearheaded by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), GFIN is an international group of financial regulators aimed at supporting financial innovation and facilitating cooperation between regulators on innovation-fostering policies, tests, and initiatives.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office sought to join GFIN based on the success of the Arizona FinTech Sandbox. Since its launch in August 2018, the Arizona FinTech Sandbox has become the most active regulatory sandbox in North America, with eight participants currently testing various innovative financial products and services in the state.

GFIN was launched in January 2019 by the FCA and eleven other agencies from around the world, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Aimed at establishing more efficient ways for businesses to interact with regulators, GFIN also seeks to facilitate cross-border testing for innovative financial products and services. Because businesses can obtain direct approval in Arizona for innovative tests through the Arizona FinTech Sandbox, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is uniquely positioned among GFIN’s members from the United States to facilitate cross-border tests, particularly those related to payments and regulatory technology.

“Joining GFIN further demonstrates Arizona’s leadership on innovation and will allow Arizona to provide our experience and expertise to this important group,” said Attorney General Brnovich. “It is gratifying to see the Arizona FinTech Sandbox receive international recognition for the progress we’ve made. Participating in GFIN is a way to further expand Arizona’s sandbox through cross-border testing that will benefit consumers in Arizona and around the world as GFIN’s members learn how to better work together.”

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is one of twelve new GFIN members and one of two state agencies from the United States announced today. Other agencies from the United States accepted into GFIN along with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office are the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, and the New York Department of Financial Services. With the twelve new members announced today, GFIN membership stands at 50. Other agencies include the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Israel Securities Authority, the Abu Dhabi Global Market, and the Financial Supervisory Commission Taiwan, with whom the Arizona Attorney General’s Office entered into a separate cooperation agreement regarding its sandbox program in November 2018.

In addition to joining GFIN, Attorney General Brnovich also announced that he has signed a cooperation agreement with Poland’s financial regulatory agency, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. This agreement establishes a cooperation structure between the Arizona FinTech Sandbox and the Polish Authority’s similar innovation-fostering programs. As with the agreement entered into with Taiwan last year, the structure of the cooperation agreement is aimed at providing an efficient means of sharing information between the two agencies regarding businesses seeking to enter each other’s market.